Best Laid Plans

If nobody ever told you that if you want to keep the guy you're messing around with a secret from your friends, never give them a key to your house.

Allie and Melanie showed up around seven this morning wanting to know all that had happened after we left the restaurant. They decided to wake me up by storming into my room and jumping on me in bed. When they opened my bedroom door ready to

pounce they saw Liam and me snuggled up together. “Oh my god,” Allie freaked out. “Did you guys actually hook up last night,” I sat up in bed, pulling the blanket up to my neck? “Allie let me explain please,” I said, trying to find the right words to explain what happened. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m tickled,” Allie interrupted. “It’s just is this the actual reason you didn’t want us to come over last night,”

“No sis, I promise this wasn’t planned at all, Noah was sitting outside the house in a white Tahoe and I didn’t want him to catch you two coming into the house,” Liam chimed in sitting up in bed making sure the blankets were still covering him. Melanie just leans up against the wall with a big grin on her face.”This is just too awesome,” She looked over at Allie and they both instantly started laughing.”Ok, you two take the giggles into another room so we can get dressed,” I told them as I threw a pillow at them. Melanie shuts my bedroom door as they leave still laughing as hard as ever. “So I guess we should get up,” I suggest. Even though I really wanted to stay in this bed a little longer next to Liam. “I think we stay in bed just a bit longer,” He says as if he has read my mind. He pulls me closer to him and gives me a deep longing kiss. “We really need to get up. I need to get a shower then head to work, then I have my classes afterward,” I try to say between kisses. “You’re right we do,” He agreed as he slid out of bed and slipped on his pants. “You go get your shower while I go handle those two out there,”

I step into the shower and wash off everything that

had happened the prior day. It was a fun, exciting day until we saw Noah, who had started following us then the blow-up in the movie theater. With all that I still had a great day pretending to be Liam’s girlfriend, which I guess in a way after last night I am. I think I am anyway. Maybe it’s one of the things we need to talk about one day.

I finished up my shower, got dressed then headed into the kitchen for some much-needed breakfast. Liam once again knew exactly what I needed, he had me an omelet with the plant-based bacon waiting for me on the table. He even had me a cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice. “Awe you shouldn’t have, I could have just grabbed a pop tart,”

“I just wanted my girl to have a good breakfast to start her day,” He said, kissing me on my head. “But if you wish tomorrow you can have a pop tart for breakfast,” I hear my friends behind me at the counter giggling. “Awe Aria you're his girl,” I ignore Allie and Melanie and finish my breakfast, then head out the door to go to work. Before I leave Liam stops me at the door. “Be safe I’ll be there soon, He told me before planting another kiss on my lips.

On my way to work, I felt like someone was following me. No one was supposed to be shadowing anymore, that was one of the points in having these earrings in. I decided to text Liam and ask him if anyone was assigned to shadow me. “No why what’s going on,”

“I think somebody is following me, what do I do,”

“Just keep walking at your normal pace don’t let on

that you're on to them, I’m not too far from you,”

When I make it to work I look in the glass and see Noah walk to the opposite side of the street. I texted Liam “It was Noah following me, I saw him crossing the street as I made it here,” Just a few seconds later Liam texted back. “This is what we had hoped would happen just try and have a good day,”

“Okay, thanks,”

I clock in and start my shift at the Mean Bean coffee shop. My shift trudges on until it’s finally my break time. Instead of meeting up with Liam as we had planned he wanted to keep an eye on Noah. So I go into our break room and have my lunch. Right after I clock back into my register a coworker hands me a bouquet of my favorite sunflowers with a note in it that read “One down two to go,” What the hell did that mean? I hurriedly text Liam a picture of the flowers and the note hoping he could make sense of it.

I went through my Law classes without any interruptions or unnerving messages. The only strange thing is that Melanie wasn’t in any of the classes today. It was very odd for her to miss anything: her college classes, doctor’s appointments, etc. Everyone that Allie and I had asked if they had seen her hadn’t seen her since yesterday. “I don’t understand, I just saw her this morning before she left for work, where could she have gone,” Allie cried as we walked across the street to my house from the University.

I sit on my comfy couch while staring at the

sunflowers someone had sent me. Grabbing the card from them I reread the strange message on it. “One down two to go,” Then it hit me. “Oh my god they got Melanie,” I jumped up screaming. Allie hears me scream and races downstairs almost tripping over the last step. “What’s wrong,” She was scared out of her mind.”

“They took Melanie,” I cry, hugging my friend who still doesn’t quite understand who I’m talking about.”Aria who took Melanie and how do you know,” She asked calmly. She guides me back to the couch where I explain to her about the flowers I received with the weird message and then Melanie not showing up for her classes. Then she understands who “They” were I was talking about. The Reza cartel had taken Melanie and they planned on kidnapping us also. Allie jumped up and immediately started locking the doors, making sure all the windows in the house were locked, and closed the curtains, she even turned on the tv to where she could watch the camera’s that we had installed around the house. “Allie this isn’t the time to worry about us, we need to worry about getting Melanie back safely,” I explained to her. “What do you mean we, that is what my brother and the rest of the FBI is for,” She retorted as she called her brother. Just as she hits send we hear keys jiggling outside, then the front door opening. “What’s going on in here,” Liam said walking inside. “Melanie is missing and Aria thinks the cartel has her and she thinks they are after us plus she said that we need to go get her back,”

Allie revealed in one breath. Liam looks back and forth from Allie to me. “Al calm down and go get you a drink no one in this room is going to go get Melanie,”

I stare at him in shock. “But-,”

“Aria, you're our key witness to put Noah and Caleb away plus my little sister isn’t going to go get herself kidnapped or worse, so NO,” He yells, interrupting me. “Now explain to me how you think the cartel took Melanie,”

He sits beside me on the couch and I show him the message I got with the flowers and Allie tells him the last time she had seen Melanie along with how she had missed work and her classes today which was unlike her to ever do. “You two stay out of it, Allie you are going to stay here for the foreseeable future, I’ll contact the school and let them know that you will be doing your classes remotely for now,”

“And I guess that goes for me also right,” I concluded. “Actually, no Aria you are to remain business as usual, remember they want you that’s why they took Melanie, but we will talk about this a little bit more I gotta go get in contact with my bosses,” Liam said as he headed to my office/his room. I look over at Allie, who seems to be pretending to play on her phone except for the tears falling down her cheeks tells me she isn’t. “I’m so so so sorry I never wanted you or Melanie involved in this, it’s all my fault,” I apologize. “You’re right, it is all your fault Melanie wouldn’t be held up god knows where with guys doing god knows what, to

her, she would be safe if you hadn’t come into our lives,” She snapped at me then ran upstairs to the guest bedroom. She’s right, it is all my fault I tell myself. Grabbing my jacket I sneak out the front door, but not before disarming the front door’s security camera. I don’t know exactly what my plan is but if the FBI wants to use me as bait and the cartel wants me so bad that they will take my friend who is innocent in all of this to get my attention well here I am.

I can only imagine what’s going on at my house. Liam comes out of the office/his room looking for me and Allie. He looks in my room. Nobody there, he goes into the guest room; he only finds Allie. “Where is Aria,” He asked her. “I don’t know she was on the couch when I came up here,” Allie replied. “Help me look for her,” Liam ordered her. They searched the house up and down only then did they realize I’m gone. “Allie what did you and Aria talk about after I left the room and you better tell me the truth because if you don’t it will get you into trouble this time,” He warned her with tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have told her it was her fault for getting Melanie kidnapped and everything, I didn’t know she was going to take off please forgive me,” Allie implored.

The only problem with me leaving my house the way I did was that I forgot to take my earrings with the tracking chips in them out of my ears. So low and behold who pulls up beside me. A not-so-happy-

looking Liam. “Get your stubborn ass inside of this car,” He snapped. “I cannot believe you would just leave like that, do you realize how worried I was when I found out you had just left,” I couldn’t answer. I just started crying. I couldn’t believe he cared so much for me. When I looked into his eyes, they had tears in them, which made my heartbreak and I ended up crying even harder. “I love you so much to see you get hurt by that idiot again,” He blubbered. When I finally got myself calmed down enough to be able to form words I told him what happened. “ I apologized to Allie for putting her and Melanie into all this and that it was my fault for Melanie getting taken. She agreed with me. So when she ran upstairs, I told myself that it was my job to make Allie and Melanie safe again,” He just looked at me shaking his head. “And what was your plan? Just walk over town until Noah or one of his cartel guys finds you then take you back to their place without any backup,” Liam shouts at me. “I didn’t have a plan actually,” I whispered. I silently start thinking about what Liam had just said about me “walking all over town until Noah or the cartel find me without any backup” as he is driving me back home still gripping about me leaving. But what if I did have some backup, someone shadowing me, that plan would work, I mused aloud to myself. “Do what, what are you talking about,” Liam asked as he pulled the car into the garage. “Your plan might work if I did have someone watching out for me,” I told him cheerfully. “What do you mean by my plan,” He

questioned. “That wasn’t a plan that was me mad at you for leaving,”

“Let’s at least go inside and talk about it alright, it really could work,” I beg. He nods his head “Alright, we will talk about it,”

The next evening I set off on a walk around town with Liam and another officer set up in unmarked vehicles along my path watching me. Before Liam even let me out of the house he put a smartwatch on me so he could hear my every word. I was almost to the Mean Bean coffee shop where I worked when a hooded man put something into my jacket pocket. I stopped under the coffee shop outside lights and opened the envelope. There was a picture of Liam kissing me along with a picture of Melanie sitting on a dirty wooden floor with her mouth and hand taped up one of her ankles was shackled. Turning the picture over a message was written on the one with Liam and me. “Tomorrow night come alone and leave your FBI boyfriend behind,” I read, allowing Liam to hear it. “He knows,” Is all I have to say before Liam drives over and picks me up. “How do they know that you're the FBI and that you're my boyfriend,” I continued climbing into his pickup truck. “I have one theory of how they found out, remember that day at the movie theater when the officer drove us home, he was the only one besides you, Allie, and Melanie that knows I’m FBI plus that we’re dating,” I looked up at Liam raising my eyebrows questionably. “So you are saying that the cartel has people inside the police force, that’s so

hard to believe they are supposed to protect us not help the bad guys,” I shake my head in disbelief. “Don’t be naive Aria there are some crooked cops along with some who can be bought if the price is right,” Liam revealed solemnly. “Well, either way, I still have to come and meet him tomorrow night without anyone with me,” After a moment's reflection. Liam pulls the truck over to the side of the road. “The hell you are! You don’t know if they will just shoot you or worse keep you alive and torture you all over again, do you want to live through that again,” He protested.

He starts the pickup up, shifts it into gear then heads for home. We ride in an uneasy silence all the way there. I know he is worried about me getting hurt, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing when I know Melanie is being hurt or worse. Liam has to understand that. I’m going to have to convince him somehow to let me do this on my own. He gave me a watch where he can hear everything plus the earrings with the tracker in them. Maybe he should get me a phone that is a stun gun. Would that make him feel better about letting me go on my own? I decided to ask him once we are inside. “Hey Liam,” I asked.

“Yeah,”

“Do they make stun guns that look like a smartphone,”

“I don’t know why do you want one,”

“Well, I figured that since you gave me these earrings to track my movements, this watch to hear my conversations, why not have a stun gun that looks

like a smartphone to hurt someone if they get too close to me,”

“Not a bad idea I will check it out,”

Before heading up the stairs, I kiss my handsome boyfriend who has no idea what I’m planning to do the next morning. God, I hope he forgives me.